John Solomon On Manafort's "Black Ledger"

John Solomon has an interesting article today at his new site, Just the News. The article is based on a brief interview with Paul Manafort's former partner, Rick Gates, who was forced into a plea deal by Team Mueller in exchange for testimony against Manafort. In the interview Gates told Solomon that the famous "black ledger" that Manafort was alleged to maintain--supposedly documenting cash payments to Manafort from Russian-backed politicians in Ukraine--was a total fabrication. Not only that, but Gates told Team Mueller that all the way back in April, 2018:

Key witness told Team Mueller that Russia collusion evidence found in Ukraine was fabricated

Here's what Solomon leads off with:

One of Robert Mueller’s pivotal trial witnesses told the special prosecutor’s team in spring 2018 that a key piece of Russia collusion evidence found in Ukraine known as the “black ledger” was fabricated, according to interviews and testimony. 

The ledger document, which suddenly appeared in Kiev during the 2016 U.S. election, showed alleged cash payments from Russian-backed politicians in Ukraine to ex-Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort. 

 “The ledger was completely made up,” cooperating witness and Manafort business partner Rick Gates told prosecutors and FBI agents, according to a written summary of an April 2018 special counsel’s interview. 

... 

Gates’ account is backed by several Ukrainian officials who stated in interviews dating to 2018 that the ledger was of suspicious origins and could not be corroborated.

As Solomon points out, this puts the "black ledger" in the same category as other Russia Hoax "evidence," such as the Steele "dossier"--fabrications.

What surprises me is that, while Solomon and Gates go into considerable detail in explaining how it can be determined that the "black ledger" is a fraud, Solomon leaves out an important detail.


One of the Ukrainian officials who backs up Gates' account is Sergey Leschenko, a member of the Ukrainian parliament. Leschenko was the person who publicized the supposed "black ledger" during the summer of 2016, forcing Manafort out of the Trump campaign. What Leschenko did was illegal, and now with Trump in the White House Leschenko has an obvious motive to be cooperative and to support Gates' account.

What Solomon fails to mention, however, is the well known fact that Leschenko was an important source for Fusion GPS, the Clinto oppo research shop. That provides another connection between the Steele "dossier" and Manafort's "black ledger"--they both appear to originate with Fusion GPS, laundered through non-US persons: Steele and Leschenko.

In March, 2019, I reviewed Nellie Ohr's testimony to the House: Nellie Ohr's Story--Puzzlements. Here's the part that pertains to Leschenko:

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Probably the biggest surprise in her testimony is her confirmation that Ukrainian legislator Serhiy Leshchenko was a "source" for Fusion GPS. One point of interest in this is the entire line of questioning--as of October 19, 2018, I don't think Serhiy Leshchenko was on any researchers' radar screens, but he was definitely on the House GOP's radar screen. Nellie herself states that she was quite familiar with Leshchenko as an "anti-corruption" activist in Ukraine--a George Soros connected angle that we recently explored in The Soros, Ukraine, FBI Connection and Do All Roads In The Russia Hoax Lead To Ukraine? The exchange regarding Leshchenko between Nellie and the Committee is a bit ambiguous toward the end, but there's no doubt that the questioners believe that Leshchenko was providing information about the travels of Trump family members--an area of research that Nellie was engaged in. As I say, it's somewhat unclear whether Nellie actually confirms that, although the probability is that she does--but she suggests that there may have been more to Leshchenko's source information than simply Trump family travel. You decide (pp. 113-115):

Q: Regarding any of the research during this year, 10-11 month period, was any -- was any research based off of sources of theirs that you were aware of?
A: Yes.
Q: And who were the sources?
A: I recall a -- they were mentioning someone named Serhiy Leshchenko, a Ukrainian.
Q: And did they give you any indication as to Leshchenko's connections with them, how they got to know him? Were they doing work for him?
A: With Fusion GPS?
Q: Correct.
A: I am not aware of how they --
Q: Were you aware of how they had a connection with him?
A: I am not aware.
Q: But you were aware that he was a source of information that was leading to information that they had, that they were then presenting to you as reasons for following up on  opposition research or what research --
A: Yes.
Q: -- that is, on President Trump or his family?
A: My understanding is that some -- yes. And -- yes, it was not necessarily on his family that Leshchenko's research was on.
Q: Are you aware of what his research, or what his source information included?
A: His source information, I am not aware.
Q: You are just aware that he was a source of --
A: Yes.
Q: -- Glenn Simpson? Or was it a source of Mr. [Jake] Berkowitz? Or both?
A: I am not aware of a differentiation between them. Just a source for Fusion GPS. 

Leshchenko as a source for Fusion GPS is obviously an interesting angle from a number of standpoints, but especially considering his connections to two major Clinton donors: Ukrainian oligarch Victor Pinchuk and George Soros (see links above). We get a picture of international connectedness and collusion that may tie in to the Ukrainian connections to the Clinton campaign in the US--Alexandra Chalupa in particular.

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Note well what Nellie says about Leschenko: "it was not necessarily on [Trump's] family that Leshchenko's research was on." Was his "research" on Manafort? In light of the information that has come out, that seems certain. So the "black ledger" and the Steele "dossier" are both Fusion GPS hit jobs.

Now, the fact that Gates told Team Mueller that the "black ledger" was a fabrication explains why Team Mueller ended up dropping it like a hot potato:

After gaining wide attention as purported evidence of Russian ties to the Trump campaign, the ledger was never introduced as evidence at Manafort’s 2018 trial or significantly analyzed in Mueller’s final 2019 report, which concluded that Trump did not collude with Russia to influence the 2016 election. No FBI 302 interview reports have been released either showing what the FBI concluded about the ledger.

But Team Mueller left the "black ledger" and the "collusion" narrative that it supported hanging out there in the leadup to the 2018 midterm elections. Funny, that.

The big question remains: Irrespective of what Gates told Team Mueller, at what point was Team Mueller aware that the predication for their investigation of Manafort was basically BS? They knew from the get go that the Steele "dossier" was BS, and they knew that the two items shared a common origin: the Hillary campaign's oppo research shop, Fusion GPS. I sure hope John Durham is taking a hard look at all of this.